Use the excerpt from Huey P. Long's "Share Our Wealth" speech, given on March 12, 1935, to answer the question.

Question

Use the excerpt from Huey P. Long's "Share Our Wealth" speech, given on March 12, 1935, to answer the question.

And they proceeded with the NRA. Everything from a peanut stand to a power house had to have a separate book of rules and laws to regulate what they did. If a peanut stand started to parch a sack of goobers for sale, they had to be careful to go through the rule book. One slip and he went to jail. A little fellow who pressed a pair of pants went to jail because he charged 5 cents under the price set in the rule book. So they wrote their NRA rule book, codes, laws, etc. They got up over 900 of them. One would be as thick as an unabridged dictionary and as confusing as a study of the stars. It would take 40 lawyers to tell a shoe-shine stand how to operate and be certain he didn't go to jail.

In 3–5 sentences, analyze Huey Long’s criticism of the New Deal. Cite specific details in the excerpt to support your analysis.

(4 points)

Answer 1

Huey Long criticizes the New Deal, specifically the National Recovery Administration (NRA), for its excessive and burdensome regulations. He highlights examples of individuals getting imprisoned for minor rule violations, such as a peanut seller parching peanuts or a small tailor charging slightly lower prices. Long emphasizes the vast number of rules and their complexity, suggesting that it would require numerous lawyers just to navigate them. This criticism highlights Long's belief that the New Deal's regulations were overly oppressive and hindered small businesses.